Pro-Homosexual Push Commonplace in Schools Coast to Coast
by Ed Vitagliano
July 24, 2006
(AgapePress) - - "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto!" was Dorothy's famous line in The Wizard of Oz. It has become a classic, meant to convey the bewilderment of a person who suddenly realizes he's in a strange world and wonders how he got there.
For many parents in Massachusetts, California, and elsewhere in the U.S., the truth is beginning to dawn on them: They aren't living in Kansas anymore. Public education is being used to brainwash thousands of children -- even as young as kindergarten -- into believing that homosexuality is simply a normal and healthy variation of human sexuality.
To be sure, when it comes to the issue of homosexuality, Massachusetts and California have been East Coast-West Coast thoroughbreds that seem to be racing each other for the honor of wackiest state in the country.
Massachusetts got off to an early lead, where activists have had nearly carte blanche since the early 1990s. Thus, at John Glenn Middle School in Bedford, for example, pink triangles adorn classroom doors, and a rainbow flag flies over the school during "gay pride" festivities. In Newton, parents discovered that first-grade teacher David Gaita had "come out" to his students and told them he was homosexual and loved men "the way your mom and dad love each other." And in Brookline, lesbian eighth-grade teacher Deb Allen told National Public Radio that she explicitly teaches her students about lesbian sex, including the use of sex toys.
Meanwhile, in California, activists have been busily trying to turn that state's public school system into a re-education camp that would make Fidel Castro proud. According to the Campaign for Children and Families (CCF), a California-based pro-family group, the state may soon pass and implement three separate bills -- SB 1437, AB 606 and AB 1506 -- which would have a staggering impact on what public schools teach children.
CCF said that the combination of the three measures would force all California public schools to promote homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality to schoolchildren as young as kindergarten; require textbooks to promote these lifestyles; prohibit schools from sponsoring traditional school activities, such as school proms that vote for a boy-girl couple as prom "king" and "queen," or sports teams that "discriminate" against transgendered kids; and prohibit public schools from teaching that there is a natural family -- that is, a father, a mother and their children.
Court-Ordered Indoctrination
However, children don't have to live in California or Massachusetts to encounter the indoctrination process. In April, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a homosexual pressure group, sponsored its 10th annual "Day of Silence," a nationwide school-based protest. Nearly 4,500 schools participated, according to GLSEN. In order to promote the homosexual lifestyle, more than 450,000 kids refused to speak a single word during the school day, often with the approval of school administrators and teachers.
In Wisconsin a group called Students for Unity used the Day of Silence to distribute a questionnaire at Port Washington High School. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, hundreds of students answered questions like, "If you have never slept with someone of your same gender, then how do you know you wouldn't prefer it?" and "Could it be that your heterosexuality is just a phase?"
Two teachers approved of the distribution of the questionnaire in their classes and followed up with discussions, said LifeSiteNews, even though parents were not informed about it beforehand.
Meanwhile, at Boyd County High School in Kentucky, students in Ann Qualls' English class were required to watch the first 15-20 minutes of Brokeback Mountain, a recent film about two homosexual sheepherders. While none of the movie's explicit sex scene was shown, the entire class was spent on the film -- again without the knowledge or approval of parents.
Boyd County is well known by pro-family groups for another reason: All students and faculty in Boyd County schools are under a court order to attend diversity sessions that normalize homosexuality.
The court order stems from an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawsuit filed against the school district three years ago, after the high school refused to allow the formation of a student homosexual-rights group on campus. Boyd County lost the suit, and in 2004 agreed to a settlement that included mandatory diversity sessions for faculty and students.
Training for students included a video stating that if one student speaks out against homosexuality to a gay student -- that is considered harassment. The offending student would be punished.
Some parents were angered by the agreement, and sued the school, demanding that their children be allowed to opt out of the training. In February, however, U.S. District Judge David Bunning ruled that all students and faculty must undergo the mandatory sensitivity training in order to make the schools safe for homosexual kids.
"Students have no religious or free-speech rights to opt-out of school training aimed at stopping anti-gay harassment in Boyd County schools," Bunning said. The judge added that anti-harassment training that deals with "actual or perceived sexual orientation" was "rationally related to a legitimate educational goal, namely to maintain a safe environment."
Making Schools Safer?
Homosexual activists have insisted for years that things like diversity training and gay pride events are necessary to prevent the harassment of kids who identify themselves as homosexual. This "safer schools" mantra carries emotional weight because most adults would probably agree that all students should feel safe in school.
In order to promote safety, however, activists often demand that schools indoctrinate students so that they accept homosexuality as normal. Following Bunning's ruling in February, for example, Sharon McGowan of the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project swept aside suggestions that Boyd County could make schools safe without the mandatory diversity training sessions.
"Just telling students not to pick on others because of their sexual orientation or gender identity doesn't force them to change their beliefs, and the judge agreed with us about that," McGowan said. (emphasis added)
It is this type of agenda -- forcing students to change their beliefs about homosexuality -- that makes parents squeamish about groups like GLSEN.
But even if students don't end up altering their views about sexuality, the potential for confusion among children is startling. In New Jersey, for example, a school board decided that Eagleswood Township Elementary in West Creek could continue to use 71-year-old Lily McBeth as a substitute teacher -- even though he had undergone a sex change.
Parents who were both for and against rehiring McBeth spoke during an emotionally charged school board meeting in February, but in the end the board said his sex change did not affect his ability to teach children.
One worried parent, however, said: "Show me the research that says this will not affect my children. I will not allow my children to be placed in a petri dish and hope that it turns out fine."
Unlike Dorothy, though, parents in New Jersey and elsewhere don't have magic slippers to safely whisk their children back to Kansas. And, as it turns out, Kansas isn't so normal anymore, either.
Ed Vitagliano, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is news editor of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association. This article, printed with permission, appears in the July 2006 issue.
